Test him. Empty out the interview room, but make him wait in it before you get there. Leave a quarter or a dollar coin somewhere where it could have fallen from someone's pocket. Those who can be trusted with little can be trusted with much; if he takes the coin, he's not your guy.

Trust your gut. These days we tend to ignore our intuition. Don't. I don't care if the guy looks like Jesus on paper and interviews like God Almighty ... if something about him seems unquantifiably off, the odds are actually quite high that some is, in fact, wrong.

I would ask around. Ask your friends, people from other companies that you trust, relativies etc. if they know of someone who fits the bill and is looking.

Did your former Sr. Engineer leave on good terms? if so ask him/her if they know of someone.

I wouldn't put too much stock into what former managers have to say and I wouldn't trust a word from the HR department! There are a lot of people out there that will bad-mouth former empolyee's out of spite. One of our HR managers does that because he feels that if anyone leaves the company they are disloyal and because it makes work for him.

You could also bring someone in on a contract and see how they do. If you like them then bring them in full-time.

Credit rating. Lots of organizations are adding this to their pre-employment checks. Someone with a low credit score could, in theory, be more apt to do something nefarious to make some quick cash.

Unless you happen to have the secret to cold fusion (the process not the application) or work with heads of state, quite frankly, no one is going to walk up to you and offer to sabotage anything. No company is that important nor anyone in a position at entry level to cause that much damage.

Besides, the mob isn't gonna report on your credit with them. Citibank will just threaten to take your money when they have no ability to. The mob will come and break your legs, making that incentive to do something.

Background check. This is a given, and while it's no guarantee, someone with a clean record should, in theory, be more trustworthy than someone with some, ah, history.

And this is why a felon can't get a break in this country. Plenty of perfectly capable people who went to jail, did their time, but are now relegated to working fast food, if that. So much for doing your time to society. Might as well round them up and send them to an island, they are useless now because they have a record.

Bill Gates has a record. Steve Jobs had a record. Hell, I have a record. If someone does their time, they shouldn't have to further do time on the outside as a pariah.

Credit rating. Lots of organizations are adding this to their pre-employment checks. Someone with a low credit score could, in theory, be more apt to do something nefarious to make some quick cash

+1 for @PSX. I will not let any potential employers check my credit. It's a BS measurement, and has no determination on what type of moral compass the person has. It's half-assed and akin to asking for my Facebook password.

This comes from a guy who went through a 5 year divorce battle and _almost_ ruined myself financially to share 50% custody of my daughter with her emotionally abusive mother. Does that show up on a credit report?

And this is why a felon can't get a break in this country. Plenty of perfectly capable people who went to jail, did their time, but are now relegated to working fast food, if that. So much for doing your time to society. Might as well round them up and send them to an island, they are useless now because they have a record.

Bill Gates has a record. Steve Jobs had a record. Hell, I have a record. If someone does their time, they shouldn't have to further do time on the outside as a pariah.

Recently interviewed a guy who was really smart, and his existing salary was easily 20K below market rate and wasn't asking for much. After running background found out he had a Class A breach of trust (Prior to working in IT, had a temp job at a department store, and got accused of helping people steal useless junk on black Friday on his first week on the job). I genuinely believe the guy didn't do it and got screwed, but it was interesting to see how being on the fence of being undesirable is still pretty rough. He said he was threatened with the maximum jail sentence if he didn't confess. Really reminded me how screwed up DA's can get. Honestly If I ever got hit with a felony I'd likely skip the country and go work in the third world again. Professional insurance requirements that block felons pretty much means they are a 2nd caste in our society.

Why should jobs be allowed to check a users credit score or report. That has nothing to do with a persons previous employment.

The theory is that for management/budget authority potions, I don't want people making purchasing decisions who can't keep their personal finances clean (especially in accounting/finance fields).

For low level positions, its more a problem as when you have a call center full of people with more debt than they make in a year you get a ridiculous amount of calls to the company main line looking for these people to break their legs.

Depends on the crime. Petty crimes okay, Felonies, then you get what you deserve.

The joy of this is that if you commit a class B misdemeanor breach of trust or higher, your going to be responding with "do you want fries with that" unless you can get it expunged.

Honestly the credit rating is a bigger concern, as I've seen people who were in SMB's in comptroller/booking keeping positions steal 40K to cover their credit card/spending problems. We had a SMB customer who had their bookkeeper do this, and a simple online check showed she had a ton of prescription drug fraud convictions from less than 5 years ago.

Test him. Empty out the interview room, but make him wait in it before you get there. Leave a quarter or a dollar coin somewhere where it could have fallen from someone's pocket. Those who can be trusted with little can be trusted with much; if he takes the coin, he's not your guy.

Honestly If you find a quarter in our office its yours, I don't care. My idea of testing is throwing him on a server and having him perform tasks. If he can do things that are on his resume he's a crap ton more trustworthy than half the people looking for jobs.

Bryce Katz wrote:

Length of service. Both in terms of overall career and typical length at previous positions.

While serial hoppers with gaps open a LOT of questions, anyone with 10+ years working in house IT at a single place is going to be disqualified for my purposes, and anyone with 7+ years at the same title.

If your not moving up, or moving on your probably not cut out for consulting.

Credit rating. Lots of organizations are adding this to their pre-employment checks. Someone with a low credit score could, in theory, be more apt to do something nefarious to make some quick cash

+1 for @PSX. I will not let any potential employers check my credit. It's a BS measurement, and has no determination on what type of moral compass the person has. It's half-assed and akin to asking for my Facebook password.

This comes from a guy who went through a 5 year divorce battle and _almost_ ruined myself financially to share 50% custody of my daughter with her emotionally abusive mother. Does that show up on a credit report?

For most positions, yes, for senior/managerial/dept head positions and those dealing with company finances... I have to disagree. If you are going to hold the keys to the kingdom, I want to know what skeletons are running around in your closets.

Yes, people can have bad credit ratings and still be allowed in those positions. In my last job, our accountant had a horrible credit rating (medical and a divorce)... Those are just guidelines, you have to talk with the individual, get a feel for them, DO due diligence in your reference checking, get a total view of your final candidates, THEN make your decision.

For most positions, yes, for senior/managerial/dept head positions and those dealing with company finances... I have to disagree. If you are going to hold the keys to the kingdom, I want to know what skeletons are running around in your closets.

Yes, people can have bad credit ratings and still be allowed in those positions. In my last job, our accountant had a horrible credit rating (medical and a divorce)... Those are just guidelines, you have to talk with the individual, get a feel for them, DO due diligence in your reference checking, get a total view of your final candidates, THEN make your decision.

Then be prepared to show me your credit score during the interview - let me make a hard inquiry against your credit for what may amount to nothing more than a 1/2 hour meeting. It's a ridiculous way to judge candidates.

I can get a feel for a person through interviews, talking with references and/or past employers, a basic background check, and some sort of performance testing. We aren't talking about a Secret or Top Secret clearance - it's an IT job, with the same access to company financials that a $12/hr payroll clerk may have.